城市景观生态建设──以沈阳市为例

本文对城市进行了景观生态学分析，认为城市景观嵌块体小，数量多，景观高度破碎，道路廊道多，而缺少绿色廊道及绿色嵌块体，结合沈阳市，分析了景观质量及绿地现状，从而提出在城市景观生态建设中应增加绿色嵌块体及绿色廊道的数量。     

城市景观生态建设

本文对城市进行了景观生态学分析，认为城市景观嵌块体小，数量多，景观高度破碎，道路廊道多，而缺少绿色嵌块体，结合沈阳市，分析了景观质量及绿地现状，从而提出在城市景观生态建设中应增加绿色嵌块体及绿色廊道的数量。     

西南岩溶山区景观生态特征与景观生态建设

探讨了西南岩溶山区景观生态结构与功能以及景观生态过程的不同于其他区域的基本特征，尝试从景观角度认识西南岩溶区生态空间特性与演化过程。受地质地貌和土地利用的影响。西南岩溶山区景观基质脆弱、景观格局分异明显，具破碎化与景观结构粗粒化、景观动态变化范围大且速度快、整体退化明显的特点，以石漠化为特征的景观演化削弱了岩溶生态系统的生态服务功能。岩溶山区的景观生态建设须充分认识岩溶山区资源环境优势，充分利用当地的适生植物资源，协调生态效应和水文效应，促进水土资源的有效保持向高效利用发展，形成新的高效、和谐的人工自然景观。今后应把景观格局与生态过程结合起来、与人文因子和地学背景结合起来，加强小尺度的景观变化研究。     

城市景观生态特点与建设途径—以佛山市为例

城市景观生态设计是城市生态规划的基本内容，以广东省佛山市为例，运用景观生态学原理，分析了佛山市景观生态现状和生态设计内函，对佛山市景观生态建设提出了一些思路与对策。     

“绿色贸易堡垒”与经济发展的“绿色通行证”

“绿色贸易堡垒”是国际贸易中非关税贸易堡垒重要的组成部分，它从保护环境的目的出发，在国际贸易中发挥着越来越重要的作用。文章通过对天津市现实状况的研究，提出克服绿色贸易堡垒，为天津市经济在入世后获得“绿色通行证”的对策建议。     

农村景观规划与生态建设

介绍了农村景观的发展与变化 ,论述了农村景观生态规划的内容与原则 ,并介绍了 5种典型的景观生态建设模式。     

农村景观规划与生态建设

介绍了农村景观的发展与变化,论述了农村景观生态规划的内容与原则,并介绍了5种典型的景观生态建设模式。     

苏州花桥国际商务城生态用地时空动态特征

以快速城镇化的小尺度区域——苏州花桥国际商务城为研究区,基于高分辨率遥感影像和GIS技术,利用土地利用转移矩阵、重心计算、景观格局指数和平均等效面积法分别对研究区生态用地时空动态、景观格局动态和土地生态质量空间格局动态特征进行研究。结果表明:(1)2005—2015年,研究区建设用地在快速城镇化进程中迅速扩张,而生态用地总面积减少913.11 hm~2,同时生态用地重心逐渐向南迁移。(2)2005—2009年,研究区耕地优势度下降,其他生态用地优势度未出现较大波动;2009—2015年,随着政府生态建设力度加大,研究区斑块破碎化程度降低,景观复杂程度降低,除耕地外其他生态用地优势度迅速提升。(3)2005—2015年研究区平均等效面积由0.28增至0.31,总体生态质量得到改善;全区有57.01%的土地生态质量获得提升,且主要分布于南北两端吴淞江附近,仅有17.22%的土地生态质量下降。这表明近年来在城镇生态用地紧缺的情况下,研究区城镇生态建设对生态环境改善起到重要作用。建议研究区未来重点提升中部区域土地生态质量,进一步优化土地资源配置,以实现土地生态质量全面提升。     

快速城市化背景下上海绿色空间景观格局梯度及其多样性时空动态特征分析

以上海典型快速城市化地区为例,基于遥感影像数据,综合运用RS/GIS技术和Fragstats 3.3移动窗口法对1997年、2000年、2005年、2008年和2015年5个年份上海绿色空间的景观格局梯度及其多样性时空动态进行分析。随城市发展的绿色空间梯度变化和景观多样性的空间显式化研究可以帮助理解景观格局-过程关系,同时为城市景观格局优化和管理提供支持。结果表明,(1)1997—2015年间,研究区总体上以建设用地的增加和绿色空间的总量减少为典型特征,农田景观面积比例PLAND减少了32.85%,森林绿地PLAND增加了9.44%,水体PLAND增加了1.58%,建设用地PLAND增加了28.59%。(2)研究区绿色空间的景观格局随着城市空间多方向的扩张变化明显,同心矩形带梯度模式分析和多向梯度模式分析结果显示,近20年来,在矩形环4以内中心城区森林绿地PLAND、斑块数量NP、斑块密度PD、景观形状指数LSI的增加,表明中心城区森林绿地景观破碎化越来越严重,人工痕迹较重。在矩形环5以外区域森林绿地PLAND、LPI的增加及NP的下降表明郊区森林绿地景观表现出一定的集聚性;在矩形环5以外区域农田PLAND、最大斑块指数LPI的下降和PD、LSI的升高表明建设用地的扩张使原本均一化的农田景观越来越破碎,形状也越来越复杂。(3)景观多样性时空动态变化分析表明,1997年仅中心城区景观多样性SHDI较低,而2015年SHDI在整个研究区均呈下降趋势。     

兰州市城市景观生态规划

在兰州市生态建设现状分析的基础上,结合西部大开发发展战略,利用景观生态学的理论和方法,根据兰州市现状条件和河谷带状山地城市的性质,提出了兰州城市景观空间结构规划的基本思路及建议。     

Rapid,recurring, structured survey versus bioblitz for generating biodiversity data and analysis with a multispecies abundance model

A bioblitz inexpensively and quickly generates biodiversity data, but bioblitzes are often conducted with haphazard, unreplicated sampling. Results tend to be taxonomically, geographically, or temporally biased, lack metadata, and consist of lists of observed taxa that do not enable further analyses or correction for imperfect detection. A rapid, recurring, structured survey (RRSS) uses a structured sampling design and temporal and spatial replication to survey randomly selected sites on a conservation property. We participated in a loosely structured bioblitz and a subsequent RRSS at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville (St. Clair County), Alabama (USA) to compare observed richness derived from the 2 survey approaches. The RRSS data structure enabled us to fit models that accounted for imperfect detection to estimate abundances, occupancy probabilities, and habitat associations. The loosely structured bioblitz data could not be used in such models. We present a new integrated multispecies abundance model that we applied to avian RRSS data. Our model extension enables estimation for the community, employs data augmentation to estimate the number of undetected species, and incorporates covariates. The RRSS generated a more comprehensive and less biased list of observed taxonomic richness than the loosely structured bioblitz (e.g., 73 vs. 45 bird species and 104 vs. 63 insect families from the RRSS vs. loosely structured bioblitz, respectively). Models fit to the RRSS data identified seasonal patterns in avian community composition and allowed for estimation of habitat–occupancy relationships for insect taxa. The RRSS protocol has potential for broad transferability as a standardized, quick, and inexpensive way to inventory biodiversity and estimate ecological parameters while providing an outreach opportunity.     

Compliance with and ecosystem function of biodiversity offsets in North American and European freshwaters

Land-use change via human development is a major driver of biodiversity loss. To reduce these impacts, billions of dollars are spent on biodiversity offsets. However, studies evaluating offset project effectiveness that examine components such as the overall compliance and function of projects remain rare. We reviewed 577 offsetting projects in freshwater ecosystems that included the metrics project size, type of aquatic system (e.g., wetland and creek), offsetting measure (e.g., enhancement, restoration, and creation), and an assessment of the projects’ compliance and functional success. Project information was obtained from scientific and government databases and gray literature. Despite considerable investment in offsetting projects, crucial problems persisted. Although compliance and function were related to each other, a high level of compliance did not guarantee a high degree of function. However, large projects relative to area had better function than small projects. Function improved when projects targeted productivity or specific ecosystem features and when multiple complementary management targets were in place. Restorative measures were more likely to achieve targets than creating entirely new ecosystems. Altogether the relationships we found highlight specific ecological processes that may help improve offsetting outcomes.     

Representation of the world's biophysical conditions by the global protected area network

Protected areas (PAs) are often implemented without consideration of already existing PAs, which is likely to cause an overrepresentation of certain biophysical conditions. We assessed the representativeness of the current PA network with regard to the world's biophysical conditions to highlight which conditions are underprotected and where these conditions are located. We overlaid terrestrial and marine PAs with information on biophysical conditions (e.g., temperature, precipitation, and elevation) and then quantified the percentage of area covered by the PA network. For 1 variable at a time in the terrestrial realm, high temperature, low precipitation, and medium and very high elevation were underrepresented. For the marine realm, low and medium sea surface temperature (SST), medium and high sea surface salinity (SSS), and the deep sea were underrepresented. Overall, protection was evenly distributed for elevation across the terrestrial realm and SST across the marine realm. For 2 variables at a time, cold and very dry terrestrial environments had mostly low protection, which was also the case for low SST and low and medium SSS across most depths for marine environments. Low protection occurred mostly in the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula for the terrestrial realm and along the Tropic of Capricorn and toward the poles for the marine realm. Although biodiversity measures are of prime importance for the design of PA networks, highlighting biophysical gaps in current PAs adds a frequently overlooked perspective. These gaps may weaken the potential of PAs to conserve biodiversity. Thus, our results may provide useful insights for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to establish a more comprehensive global PA network.     

Quantitative composition of the defensive secretion ofBledius species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae) is adapted to naturally occurring predators

Summary The adaptation of defensive secretions to their target organisms was examined for the abdominal gland secretions ofBledius furcatus, B. spectabilis andB. arenarius. Therefore the target organisms of the secretion of theseBledius species (i.e. their predators) had to be identified. At the collection sites examined these were the earwigLabidura riparia, the antCataglyphis bicolor, the flyLispe candicans, different carabids of the generaPogonus, Dichirotrichus, Dyschirius, Bembidion andCalathus and the wading birdsHaematopus ostralegus andCalidris alba. The secretion of the abdominal glands contains the toxin ptoluquinone dissolved in either-dodecalactone and 1-undecene (B. furcatus andB. spectabilis) or in octanoic acid and octyloctanoate (B. arenarius). The ratio of these solvents is species-specific. Application experiments using some of the natural insect predators (L. riparia, C. bicolor, Pogonus, Di. gustavii, Dyschirius) revealed that these solvent ratios provided a more effective deterrent than other possible ratios. Thus by combining the solvents in certain ratios, the capability of cuticular penetration and therefore the effectiveness of the defensive secretions are adapted to their natural targets.     

Democracy versus development: New urban debates

The politics of development includes subtexts of choice, as underpinned by community consensus (or lack of it), against the larger backdrop of a liberal democracy, with its intricate power structures that influence the choice of concepts and often lead to complicity rather than consent. A dilemma exists between the understanding of field-level practitioners and that of academics, whose understandings of progress differ. Progress can (and often does) imply long-term change across generations whereas development is often more a matter of crisis management and delivering tangible results to end-users. This makes it a bone of contention across political systems, irrespective of local or global dynamics. Development can emerge as a tool to be wielded for power and further political mileage at the expense of progress. Progress cannot be studied as a counterpoint to development as the sense of history is often missing in development interventions. Development tends to be piecemeal as its very logic often stems from the rationale of power. This is not to suggest, however, that development is only about politics; it is definitely more than the politics of everyday life and involves all of civil society that requires its critical and immediate attention. In this sense, it has become a priority for politicians with an underlying agenda designed to out-manouevre dissent and all statements of protest.     

A palaeo-hydrogeological model for arsenic contamination in southern and south-east Asia

An argument is presented in which areas of natural arsenic contamination of modern groundwaters throughout Asia have a common origin. Arsenic originally accumulated in oceanic ferro-manganoan sediments of the eastern Palaeo-Tethys. This was further concentrated through oceanic crustal extinction in what later became the south-east Chinese accreted mineralised terrain. Proto-Himalayan uplift of this area created the palaeo-drainage systems of the Ganges – Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong, and Red Rivers, with consequent headwater erosion of arsenic-rich sediments. Their downstream deposition as immature and easily redistributed Neogene sandstones, silts, and iron-rich clays has created secondary and tertiary reservoirs of adsorbed and authigenic arsenic, from which the current arsenic-rich groundwaters have evolved. Considering river basins within the above palaeo-hydrogeological framework provides a basis for assessing the risk of arsenic in groundwater basins of south and south-eastern Asia.     

A framework to measure the wildness of managed large vertebrate populations

As landscapes continue to fall under human influence through habitat loss and fragmentation, fencing is increasingly being used to mitigate anthropogenic threats and enhance the commercial value of wildlife. Subsequent intensification of management potentially erodes wildness by disembodying populations from landscape-level processes, thereby disconnecting species from natural selection. Tools are needed to measure the degree to which populations of large vertebrate species in formally protected and privately owned wildlife areas are self-sustaining and free to adapt. We devised a framework to measure such wildness based on 6 attributes relating to the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of vertebrates (space, disease and parasite resistance, exposure to predation, exposure to limitations and fluctuations of food and water supply, and reproduction). For each attribute, we set empirical, species-specific thresholds between 5 wildness states based on quantifiable management interventions. We analysed data from 205 private wildlife properties with management objectives spanning ecotourism to consumptive utilization to test the framework on 6 herbivore species representing a range of conservation statuses and commercial values. Wildness scores among species differed significantly, and the proportion of populations identified as wild ranged from 12% to 84%, which indicates the tool detected site-scale differences both among populations of different species and populations of the same species under different management regimes. By quantifying wildness, this framework provides practitioners with standardized measurement units that link biodiversity with the sustainable use of wildlife. Applications include informing species management plans at local scales; standardizing the inclusion of managed populations in red-list assessments; and providing a platform for certification and regulation of wildlife-based economies. Applying this framework may help embed wildness as a normative value in policy and mitigate the shifting baseline of what it means to truly conserve a species.     

Cost‐effective conservation of an endangered frog under uncertainty

How should managers choose among conservation options when resources are scarce and there is uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of actions? Well‐developed tools exist for prioritizing areas for one‐time and binary actions (e.g., protect vs. not protect), but methods for prioritizing incremental or ongoing actions (such as habitat creation and maintenance) remain uncommon. We devised an approach that combines metapopulation viability and cost‐effectiveness analyses to select among alternative conservation actions while accounting for uncertainty. In our study, cost‐effectiveness is the ratio between the benefit of an action and its economic cost, where benefit is the change in metapopulation viability. We applied the approach to the case of the endangered growling grass frog (Litoria raniformis), which is threatened by urban development. We extended a Bayesian model to predict metapopulation viability under 9 urbanization and management scenarios and incorporated the full probability distribution of possible outcomes for each scenario into the cost‐effectiveness analysis. This allowed us to discern between cost‐effective alternatives that were robust to uncertainty and those with a relatively high risk of failure. We found a relatively high risk of extinction following urbanization if the only action was reservation of core habitat; habitat creation actions performed better than enhancement actions; and cost‐effectiveness ranking changed depending on the consideration of uncertainty. Our results suggest that creation and maintenance of wetlands dedicated to L. raniformis is the only cost‐effective action likely to result in a sufficiently low risk of extinction. To our knowledge we are the first study to use Bayesian metapopulation viability analysis to explicitly incorporate parametric and demographic uncertainty into a cost‐effective evaluation of conservation actions. The approach offers guidance to decision makers aiming to achieve cost‐effective conservation under uncertainty.     

Threats to intact tropical peatlands and opportunities for their conservation

Large, intact areas of tropical peatland are highly threatened at a global scale by the expansion of commercial agriculture and other forms of economic development. Conserving peatlands on a landscape scale, with their hydrology intact, is of international conservation importance to preserve their distinctive biodiversity and ecosystem services and maintain their resilience to future environmental change. We explored threats to and opportunities for conserving remaining intact tropical peatlands; thus, we excluded peatlands of Indonesia and Malaysia, where extensive deforestation, drainage, and conversion to plantations means conservation in this region can protect only small fragments of the original ecosystem. We focused on a case study, the Pastaza‐Marañón Foreland Basin (PMFB) in Peru, which is among the largest known intact tropical peatland landscapes in the world and is representative of peatland vulnerability. Maintenance of the hydrological conditions critical for carbon storage and ecosystem function of peatlands is, in the PMFB, primarily threatened by expansion of commercial agriculture linked to new transport infrastructure that is facilitating access to remote areas. There remain opportunities in the PMFB and elsewhere to develop alternative, more sustainable land‐use practices. Although some of the peatlands in the PMFB fall within existing legally protected areas, this protection does not include the most carbon‐dense (domed pole forest) areas. New carbon‐based conservation instruments (e.g., REDD+, Green Climate Fund), developing markets for sustainable peatland products, transferring land title to local communities, and expanding protected areas offer pathways to increased protection for intact tropical peatlands in Amazonia and elsewhere, such as those in New Guinea and Central Africa which remain, for the moment, broadly beyond the frontier of commercial development.     

Sexual Predators,Energy Development,and Conservation in Greater Yellowstone

Abstract: In the United States, as elsewhere, a growing debate pits national energy policy and homeland security against biological conservation. In rural communities the extraction of fossil fuels is often encouraged because of the employment opportunities it offers, although the concomitant itinerant workforce is often associated with increased wildlife poaching. We explored possible positive and negative factors associated with energy extraction in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), an area known for its national parks, intact biological diversity, and some of the New World's longest terrestrial migrations. Specifically, we asked whether counties with different economies—recreation (ski), agrarian (ranching or farming), and energy extractive (petroleum)—differed in healthcare (gauged by the abundance of hospital beds) and in the frequency of sexual predators. The absolute and relative frequency of registered sex offenders grew approximately two to three times faster in areas reliant on energy extraction. Healthcare among counties did not differ. The strong conflation of community dishevel, as reflected by in‐migrant sexual predators, and ecological decay in Greater Yellowstone is consistent with patterns seen in similar systems from Ecuador to northern Canada, where social and environmental disarray exist around energy boomtowns. In our case, that groups (albeit with different aims) mobilized campaigns to help maintain the quality of rural livelihoods by protecting open space is a positive sign that conservation can matter, especially in the face of rampant and poorly executed energy extraction projects. Our findings further suggest that the public and industry need stronger regulatory action to instill greater vigilance when and where social factors and land conversion impact biological systems.